Imprint On Her Heart
by Piru-tan
Summary: Nomiya and Yamada, stumbling towards a brighter future. Written for Yuletide 2008.


**Title:** Imprint On Her Heart  
**Fandom:** _Honey + Clover_  
**Character(s)/Pairing(s):** Nomiya/Yamada, mentions of Mayama, Hagu, Takemoto, Morita, Hanamoto  
**Dedication:** chash, for yuletide 2008  
**Prompt:** The request was for a Nomiya/Yamada courtship story  
**Description:** Nomiya and Yamada, stumbling towards a brighter future.  
**Rating:** G  
**Word Count:** 2,581  
**Status:** Complete (It was finished in mid-December but authors weren't allowed to reveal themselves until after Jan. 1st)  
**Other Notes:** I didn't sign up to write this fandom but ended up doing this one over chash's other request because I felt like I had more inspiration to work with, what with being in art school and having studied abroad in Tokyo. In the end, though, I couldn't come up with any kind of plot that would do the canon justice, and so this fic never really grew beyond a single scene. Post-series, mild spoilers for the ending.

* * *

The monsoon season has just begun when Yamada finally has the courage to call up Nomiya and invite him out to lunch. The first month or two after Takemoto had left for Morioka and Morita for the movie business, the girl who had once been nicknamed the "Iron Lady" but was really made of porcelain on the inside had convinced herself that everything was fine—that it was inevitable that they would someday part, that she had enough commissions to keep herself occupied in their absence, and besides, she would surely see them all again soon. The fragrant aura of springtime had made it easy to forget that the changes weren't merely temporary, and only when the yearly rains return but her friends do not does the true weight of permanence begin to sink in. That's when she remembers the kind words a warm person had uttered to her two years ago, encouraging her to call whenever she feels disconsolate or fragile.

They meet at a Jonathan's near the train station. The bright lights inside the diner sharply contrast the gloomy gray skies outside, and Yamada is forced to squint as she pushes open the door and steps inside. Rain has been pouring down in buckets all day, and her pumps make soft squeaking sounds as she crosses over to the restaurant's seating area after leaving her wet umbrella in the designated stand near the entrance. Thankfully, she's saved the trouble of having to look for the person she's meeting—as soon as she approaches the first row of tables, she hears her name being called from a booth near the windows.

"Nomiya-san! My apologies for being late!" she hastily apologizes while bowing in a sincere if somewhat exaggerated motion.

"No need to apologize," Nomiya reassures her, having risen to his feet as she approached. "You're not late, I was early. Now please, sit."

She slides into the booth opposite him. He asks if she wants something to drink, but since he's already ordered a pot of coffee, she tells him coffee is fine. It's a bit too warm for the steaming hot beverage—the gray skies and raincoat-clad people outside are deceptive, as it's late June, and somewhere behind the layers of heavy clouds, the sun is beginning to send its rays of summer heat down to Tokyo. However, she doesn't want to trouble him by making him order something else because she's acutely aware of how he always goes out of his way for her and doesn't want to be a bother.

She isn't aware that she's been absentmindedly staring at her lunch partner's face until he gently asks, "Do you know what you would like to eat?"

She blushes, suddenly realizing that she hasn't even touched the menu yet. She leafs through the large pages quickly, too quickly, not even noting what most of the menu items say, but luckily Jonathan's is one of those timeless places where the menu doesn't change with any kind of frequency, and she's been here often enough in the past several years that she has a favorite dish or two. She signals Nomiya, and they buzz for a waitress. She orders beef curry over rice. He asks for a bacon cheeseburger.

Setting her menu aside, Yamada focuses once again on Nomiya, who is sitting across from her with his hands folded, smiling. No, smiling isn't the right word. He's practically glowing. She glances outside for an adequate comparison, but there's none. In the bleak and colorless outdoors, there is nothing resembling Nomiya's radiant face. It's like he reached into the sky and stole the only sunbeam and is now displaying it in his face.

"You seem very happy," she remarks out loud.

"I am," he replies, pausing long enough for her to wonder whether she is supposed to ask him why, but then he continues on his own. "I think this might be the first time you've ever invited me out on a date."

Blushing furiously, Yamada stammers, "D-date? T-this isn't a date! I j-just wanted to c-catch up with you, s-see how you're doing. Y-you know, as f-friends."

Nomiya breathes a sigh of relief, having briefly entertained the thought of bracing himself for one of Yamada's roundhouse kicks. He'd known it was a bold suggestion, and probably out of line, but he'd decided to give it a shot anyway. And the fact that she hadn't attacked him for suggesting it allowed him to feel a surge of hope.

"As you wish, then," he says, the smile never leaving his calm face. "Let's catch up. As friends."

She takes a sip of coffee, then asks, "How is work?"

Nomiya sighs. "Business is slow. It's all right, though. It always is, this time of year. It'll pick up again in July. How about you, Yamada-san?"

"Well, I'm still at the school, helping teach seminars in return for the use of the kiln," she reminds him, one finger absently tracing the rim of her coffee cup. "I have a lot of commissions lately. But I'm beginning to have trouble to complete them all. I've been in a... a bit of a slump lately."

He would've asked her to go on, but her wistful smile says it all, anyway. There is a haunted shimmer in her eyes and loneliness probably has a lot to do with it. The two strong hands, which had drawn strength from the energy of her friends, waver and lack inspiration. It's been weeks since she's made anything she's proud of, but no one's been around to give her an honest assessment of her work. No one she trusts and respects enough to take their words to heart.

"Have you seen and heard from all of them yet?" Nomiya asks, because it's the obvious thing to do.

Yamada straightens up in her seat, her arms tense, which he knows he does when she's doing something that's difficult for her. "I got a postcard from Takemoto-kun last week. He's enjoying Morioka, and work is going well. Not a thing from Morita-sempai, but that's not unexpected. He never used to let us know how he was doing when he went off on his trips. I guess the difference this time is that we actually know where he is. I think."

She pauses to take another sip of coffee, but it's more a nervous gesture this time than an act of intention. "I still see Hagu-chan and Hanamoto-sensei fairly often. I bring them food and art supplies for Hagu. She's starting to make things with her hands again. It's difficult, but she's trying really hard."

Her expression changes, then; she's smiling, but it doesn't reach her eyes. She looks outside to avoid his gaze, which she knows is on her. The rain is still coming down heavily, and she finds some comfort in the dusky gloom. There are too many memories.

She is snapped out of her reverie when Nomiya asks her the painful three words, "What about Mayama-kun?"

"Ah." Her voice is shaky, and she looks down at the table as she speaks so he can't see her eyes, because she knows he sees right through her. "I haven't really seen him much, even though he's back from Spain. You know, I never really had to deal with figuring out what his absence meant because shortly after he left, Hagu-chan got injured, and I started being so busy all the time. And now he's back, and... Well, I wonder if that means we should be hanging out, like we used to. Before, there used to always be the others, kind of like a buffer, making everything easier. I don't really know how it would work with just the two of us; I mean, what would we do? What would we talk about? And yet, it doesn't feel right not doing anything, either. But I hear he's going back to Spain soon, briefly, to check on the project. I don't want to be in the way."

"You wouldn't be. You're his friend, one of the most important people to him," Nomiya reassures her gently, patting the back of her hand.

Sometimes he wonders why he tries so hard to console the girl by encouraging her to continue her relationship with his rival. Maybe he would've gotten further by now if he'd played the devil and told her to give up on him completely, to never see him again. But he knows that if he did that, even though she would be just as kind to him, a small part of her would never trust him. And he believes that that trust is worth waiting for.

Their thoughts are interrupted when the food is brought out. The waitress sets down the plates in a hurry, hands them a basket of silverware, and disappears again quickly. Nomiya and Yamada each murmur a quick '_itadakimasu_', then attack their food, shoveling in their meals all the more quickly because the atmosphere was getting awkward and neither of them knows what to say.

He's been contemplating the shape of his coffee mug for a while, his stomach full and sated, when he speaks again. "I think the reason why you've had such a hard time getting over Mayama-kun is because you two were always creating memories together. The small adventures the five of you had left such strong imprints on your memory, and because Mayama-kun was usually there, of course you'd never be able to give up on him. He's been such a big part of your life for the past several years."

Yamada's body goes rigid as the shock of his words hits her system. They're all the more painful because they ring true—as she runs through a reel of memories of her time since she started at Hamabi, Mayama is here, there, everywhere, his voice, his smile, his laugh. His presence is deeply ingrained in the very experiences she's been using to define who she is today. No wonder.

"What do I do?" she lets out a sob, though her eyes are strangely dry. "Tell me, Nomiya-san, what do I do?"

"You two are so important to each other," Nomiya replies, his words slow, thoughtful, deliberate, "I don't think it would be right for either of you to give up on the other. But it would probably be wise to keep your distance. Maintain your friendship without making so many memories. You don't have your own computer yet, so you should get a cell phone with a plan that has e-mail. Lots of people are starting to use it. You can send mail both to other phones and to regular e-mail addresses. Use it to drop him a line every once in a while. Let him know how you've been doing. Tell him about the projects you've completed. Ask him how his work is going. Just short little messages. Kind of like a postcard, without the trouble of having to know where in the world the other person is located."

When she doesn't respond, he reaches for her hand, taking it in his own. "And in the meantime, make lots of new memories."

"H-how do I do that?" she's blushing softly, and her eyes are watery now.

"With me," he answers, trying to send across the sincerity of his words without being too smug about it.

Nomiya continues, "You see, from now on, we're going to go out to lunch at least once every week."

"We are?" she asks, momentarily oblivious to why he's coming up with such plans on the spot.

Ignoring her response, he adds, "We'll take turns picking the place, unless one of us doesn't have any good ideas."

He's interrupted when a waitress comes by and clears the dishes, but Yamada doesn't even notice. She's staring at him, her lips parted in an incredulous 'O', and it takes all his willpower not to kiss her when she's wearing such a cute, confused expression, but that wouldn't be right, not yet.

"When that new ride opens at Disneyland this summer, we're going to go check it out," he tells her, painting vivid pictures of all the places they'll go and the things they'll do. "Every month, we're going to try something new, something completely different, artistically. So hopefully you'll have a renewed source of inspiration. We'll also take a trip down to Kamakura to see the sea and visit the house that bought so many pieces of yours. I want to see them."

That's about as far as he gets when the waitress shows up with the ice cream coupe he'd ordered for Yamada, recalling how much the girl loves sweets. As she sinks her spoon into the cold treat, he could go on listing all the different things they'll do, but he decides to leave it at that. He knows he'd weird her out if he actually ran through all the plans he has in his head.

When she finishes her dessert, they walk up to the front, and Nomiya insists on paying. They retrieve their umbrellas from the stand by the door and walk outside, where the rain has lightened up, though the skies are just as gray. The humidity is even more oppressive than it was two hours ago, but somehow it feels easier to breathe.

As they are taking their leave of each other in front of the restaurant, she bows and says with sincerity, "Thank you for the meal. And for listening to my problems again."

"No problem. Feel free to call me anytime. And get that cell phone with e-mail," he says, inclining his head toward her, anxious for the day when they can be less formal with each other. "I enjoyed our date. I can't wait for the next one."

This time, she does roundhouse-kick him, then storms off toward the school with exaggerated huffs of frustration, but she missed all the places where it would've hurt the most, and he thinks it is no accident. Smiling smugly to himself, he picks himself up from the ground and heads toward the station. He'll have to change suits before he heads back to the office—his pants are muddy and his shirt is wet—but, he thinks, the fiery blush on her cheeks before she whipped her leg around was completely worth it. And just as she left the imprint of her foot on his shirt, he hopes his words left at least a tiny little imprint on her heart.

***

_To: Mayama  
From: Yamada  
Time: July 3rd, 2005 20:57:14  
Subject: Mayama-kun! Konbanwa!_

_Mayama-kun!_ ヾ(＾∇＾) _It's me, Yamada. I haven't heard from you in a while so I thought I would just drop you a quick note. I hope you are doing well._ (^^ゞ _How is your project with Rika-san going? Are you going back to Spain soon?  
I'm doing well. I finished two more commissions last week. I still visit Hagu-chan often. Her rehabilitation is going very well._ ( ・ω・) _Now that almost everyone's gone, I've been hanging out with Nomiya-san more often lately. He really is very kind. The other day, we went and took a calligraphy class together. I haven't done something like that in a very long time, but it was a lot of fun! Well, this is getting long, so I'll write again soon. I'm not sure how this works, but I think you can write me back here on my_ keitai _if you send mail to this address. I'll be waiting. Ja!_ ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ


End file.
